Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler is a lifelong advocate for quality public education. Faced with widespread turmoil in the education system during his years as a student, Adam fought back by working with the parents, teachers, students, trustees, education workers and community members of the Campaign for Public Education.
Adam believes that all young people, no matter their heritage or neighbourhood, must have the same opportunity to achieve their dreams. As a member of the Mayor’s Roundtable for Children, Youth, and Education Adam co-developed the Toronto Youth Strategy, which provided Toronto City Council with a road map for investing in Toronto’s young people. While a member of the Mayor’s community safety panel’s youth-police working group, Adam co-founded a youth advisory committee to the Chief of Police to improve the relationship between young people and the police that serve their communities.
Having had the value of community service taught to him at a young age, Adam continues to contribute to his community today. He is a Director on the Board of the Toronto Public Library, the largest and most heavily used urban public library system in the world, where he has served on the Budget and Employee and Labour Relations committees. Adam is also Chair and President of Wychwood Open Door, a neighbourhood drop-in centre for homeless and socially isolated people that served more than 16,000 meals last year while offering skills development and counselling programs. Previously, Adam coached a championship youth baseball team in the Weston-Mount Dennis community, one of the city’s 13 priority neighbourhoods.
Adam believes that an excellent school system must be integrated with the communities it serves. To build this relationship, he served on the Toronto District School Board’s Community Use of Schools Task Force. More recently, he’s been involved in the creation of the St. Clair West Aquatics Club, which successfully prevented the closure of the Winona/McMurrich school pool and is now offering programs for children and the wider community.
Adam is currently employed as a strategic communications and labour relations professional. He studied public policy at Concordia University and non-profit management at Ryerson University. He has won numerous awards for his advocacy and community work.
A resident of the Bathurst-St. Clair neighbourhood, Adam grew up in St. Paul’s and attended local public schools.
